Even as Stranger Things was said to be quietly renewed before Season 1 premiered, reports swirled that the series might lean further into its Stephen King influences by rebooting every season with a new story. Matt and Ross Duffer confirmed as much in a Comic-Con interview with Screen Rant (no affiliation), but it seems Netflix brass were the ones to realize just how attached audiences would be to Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Will and Eleven:

There is some truth to that [about it originally being an anthology show]. Yeah. That was when we were pitching it. That was true. Cause we looked at Stephen King’s ‘IT,’ and we liked that time jump that they made, so we kind of pitched that. Then Netflix was really interested in it as a series, because rightfully so. They were like, ‘I think people are going to fall in love with these kids. We are going to invest so much time with them, we’re going to want to continue our journey with them.’ And they were right. Once we started building a writers room and working on the show, we started to develop it and plan a multiple season arc.

Netflix hasn’t formally confirmed a Season 3 renewal, though we’d previously heard the Duffers projecting at least four or five seasons overall. We’ll see if Stranger Things 2 keeps the same magic, but should future seasons consider moving away from the Upside Down?